Chapter 24: The End of the Beginning

Satan wasn't sure when it happened, but one day, thirteen years into his masquerade as a human and several months after Astaroth's little stunt, he woke up and realized that he was…ok. Emotionally, that is.

At some point, his rage and hatred and regret had started to fade. He didn't know when or how or why, but it was so slow that he didn't notice, like the way the ocean dulled and eventually dissolved the land it beat against, and his boiling emotions cooled to a simmer. He still felt rage over what had happened Yuri, but it was no longer an ever-present white noise. He still hated that Yukio called that shitty priest "dad" instead of him, but the words only irritated him instead of acting like nails being driven into his skull. And he still regretted that he hadn't held tight enough, hadn't acted earlier on what he and Yuri had found blossoming between them, but it was a dull ache that reminded him of what could be lost instead of the feeling of his heart shredding itself. It was strange, because he was a long-lived creature that kept grudges for millennia, and yet the biggest slight against him was being…not forgiven but dulled with relative ease.

He remembered how he spent his days training and playing with Yukio instead of stewing and raging, and it made a little more sense.

Would Yuri be proud of him? No, no she wouldn't. He had killed a lot of people to try and save her -something she would have never wanted- and he continued to kill selfishly to protect Yukio, even as he knew how fleeting mortal life was to his eternity. He was still loud and rash and quick to anger, and he was so terrible that he possessed the body of her dead child just to be closer to his last light. Really, he was just the worst there was, and he would never be a good person.

For some reason, Yuri had been alright with his jagged imperfection. She had wanted him to be 'better', not 'good'. She wanted him to understand and work with humans, but she didn't demand that he do anything more than try to be 'better'.

So, Satan watched.

During his years playing human, Satan had learned many things about what it meant to be a human. They glorified conflict and feats of strength and yet were terrified of being hurt so much that they punished even the hint of violence. Children got some leeway with the thought that they didn't know their own strength and drowned in their emotions, but the older he grew, the less acceptable violence was, even if he never killed them. So he just moved on to hurting people who either wouldn't or couldn't tell the authorities about him. Plenty of prideful idiots who were physically older than him wouldn't dare tell who had beaten them so bad, and criminals -murders, pedophiles, kidnappers, rapists, disgusting filth that no one would miss- weren't even given a chance to go to the police. And so the demon found peace and made the town his nest and home for as long as it would allow. Even months after Ashtaroth's appearance, things continued to go smoothly.

But sometimes Satan…forgot just how fragile humans were. Like the other day, when some teens in his and Yukio's class had finally discovered what crude humor was and started making jabs at how they must be the "altar boys" at their monastery behind their backs. It shouldn't have meant much, it should have just been the ramblings of the mindless rabble that tried to claw down someone superior to them in whatever way they could. So he had ignored them because he promised to do better to get into True Cross Academy, but he had heard that shitty priest's name thrown into that filth and had, well…

He really only remembered that the brat's nose had made a very satisfying crack.

And so he was suspended from school for the rest of the week. Yukio might have been more upset that he had broken he "good streak" but instead the boy had just smiled with exasperation and a certain fondness as he walked the other boy home.

"He was defending your honor." Yukio had said when it looked like a fight was going to break out when they arrived back home.

"Like fuckin' hell I was!"

"Language!" Shiro hissed, trying (and failing) once more to clean up Rin's behavior before he entered True Cross and ruined his reputation with any Exorcist he met. He would have threatened to get the soap if the stubborn boy hadn't laughed last time at said threat and started drinking the dish soap just to prove some idiotic and nonexistent point.

The trip to the hospital hadn't been fun for anyone and now Shiro had to worry that his idiot and half-demon son would drink Holy Water just because someone told him not to.

Yukio ignored the futile battle Shiro insisted on fighting, "I thought it was very sweet if you ignore the part where you broke his nose."

"Honestly Yukio, I thought you were smarter than that. I can't defend what was never there in the first place."

Shiro had quit smoking a while ago, but by God, he needed a stiff drink, "Hey now, when are you going to grow up and stop being such a brat?"

"Please go easy on my 'big' brother, he's very bad with his feelings but I swear, Father, he's trying. Beating up someone for you is just his way of saying he likes you."

"Like a cat bringing back dead birds. I fear what he'll start doing to show he 'likes' a girl…"

"You bastard, I'm not a cat!"

Even with Yukio's defense of him, reparations still had to be made, and so he was stuck being the glorified pack mule the next time he and Yukio were allowed to shadow Shiro and the other Exorcists as they cleaned up the borders of the city. He wasn't allowed to stab anything or participate in general, even though Kuro (that terrible name had stuck), who was now technically 'Rin's' familiar got to help take down the smaller demons. Kuro, who was supposed to be a powerful demon, but instead he had been drafted to chasing out small demons from their hidey-holes and didn't even mind being given such demeaning work. No, instead the Cat Sídhes seemed ridiculously pleased when it brought a struggling hobgoblin to Satan's feet, twin tails waving happily.

'Rin, Rin! Look, I caught it!'

"Fantastic, you caught a rat." Satan drawled, bored out of his mind. He wasn't allowed to even fiddle with his camera since he took pictures of "top secret Exorcist operations" if he had it on hand. What was wrong with wanting to capture Yukio's first real kill? It wasn't like the film could properly record the demons anyway.

'Rin, did I do good?'

"Eh. Also, don't play with your food unless it did something bad to you." Satan had absolutely no qualms with torture, but Yuri would at least want him to only do it when someone had committed a seriously slight against him.

Stuck with nothing to do, Satan could only watch and feel his anxiety rise every time a demon came within even twenty feet of Yukio, never mind that the shitty priest was acting as a human shield. If he needed, he could be by Yukio's side in under five seconds, but that was still a long time in a fight. Sure, his son was now very proficient with his gun and knew enough hand-to-hand to take down a man three times his size, but he still worried.

Their Exorcist training had been sporadic and spotty for the most part, with Shiro having an obvious preference for the more practical side of things and being a stern teacher. Satan refused to let the old man cut into Yukio's studies, and so a bargain had been reached: they wouldn't be given a very heavy load and would still attend the Exorcist cram school as a formality and take the Exwire exam to streamline the process and prevent accusations of favoritism. The Paladin had given in far too easily, so Satan was sure that he simply wanted to delay them being put on any sort of real combat duty for as long as possible. And while Satan entirely supported keeping Yukio out of danger for as long as possible, he also realized that Astaroth hadn't come to Assiah for shits and giggles.

Eh, he could deal with Gehenna whenever he wanted. The idea of getting direct access to the Exorcist's main base and information was too good to pass up. Even if he had no active plans to use it against them, that didn't mean things wouldn't suddenly change.

He also might have also planned to raid Yuri's files the first chance he got, assuming they hadn't tried to scrub her from history.

It was only a whisper of a sound, but Satan knew instantly that something was above him.

Satan brought his free arm up to defend himself and hissed as the…creature sunk its long fangs into his flesh. Spindly, too-long arms attempted to wrap around his body and pin him, and with a shock, Satan realized he could feel it draining his blood. He screamed as loud as he could into deformed ears and sank his knife into its back thrice before it let go, skittering to the ground with a spitting hiss.

Away from him, he could see that the creature resembled a large monkey with grotesquely long limbs and hooked feet. It looked deformed, missing patches of fur and with mismatched limbs and what looked like metal sticking out of it. It growled at him, his blood dripping off its long fangs, and Satan swore, bringing his knife up. Yukio was behind him, Yukio needed to be protected, Yukio-

The creature screamed as two bullets dug into its side and shoulder

-Yukio had just shot the creature, fire burning in his eye.

Oh right, Yukio wasn't really a child anymore.

Shiro ran in front of Rin without a hint of hesitation before the boy could try and fight a demon one-on-one (again), pushing him back towards the other Exorcists that quickly formed a protective circle around the two boys. He paused, confusion obvious on his face, "Is that an Asanbosam?! Shit, that's a blood-sucker! Yukio check on your brother, now! We'll-"

Whatever plan the Paladin had went out the window when Kuro multiplied to the size of a small car, not caring that they were in a cramped alleyway, and pounced despite Shiro's protests- to which Satan had to agree with. The creature was small and built to grab and latch, so it wouldn't be hard for it to climb onto somewhere the Cat Sídhe couldn't reach and rip open an artery or six. But Kuro was filled with anger and bloodlust at the sight of his charge being hurt so badly, and Satan wondered if he was going to have to call him back with some of his authority.

There wasn't a need, as the Asanbosam let out another spitting hiss and growled some literal nonsense in the demon language before scaling the steep walls like an overgrown spider and away from Kuro's claws. Shiro shot it at least five more times, but it seemed to be immune to pain and didn't pay it any mind, disappearing over the lip of the building. The Exorcists, predictably, scattered, leaving Shiro behind to guard Yukio as he did his best to patch up the nearly inch-deep bite wounds in Satan's arm, while the demon insisted he was fine. He had gotten the creature off of him fast enough it had only taken a few mouthfuls of blood, so he wasn't even dizzy. That didn't deter Yukio, who pulled out a rather larger first aid kit and set to work.

Satan hissed from the powerful disinfectant Yukio insisted on cleaning the wounds with despite his resistance to diseases, "The fuck was that monstrosity?"

"Asanbosams are blood-sucking demons that like to possess apes and monkeys. There shouldn't be any in Japan, but I'll bet that that was someone's exotic and likely very illegal pet." Shiro grimaced at the thought of just how much of a mess things could become if said owner insisted on finding their 'pet'. Hopefully, they could catch it and claim rabies if they needed. "How do you feel, Rin? You aren't dizzy, right?"

"I'm fine!" Satan growled to both the Exorcist and Yukio, but the boy refused to let go of his arm until he had wrapped it thoroughly in what was probably an excessive amount of gauze. "It barely got any of my blood. What's more important is that we get the hell out of here. We're too vulnerable." The walls were tall and practically a cage for them when against something that could scale them as easily as they could run.

"We should be fine. Asanbosams are ambushers, so I bet it's long gone." Despite his words, Shiro took up an obvious defensive position in front of the boys, Kuro still enlarged and growling at anything that moved, "Yukio, how bad is it?"

"I told you, I'm fine-!"

"You're a liar who has absolutely no sense of self-preservation just because you can take a couple more knocks to the head than most people. Now, Yukio?"

Yukio sighed and let his twin finally snatch his arm away. "It didn't pierce through his arm, somehow. There's some tearing, but I should be able to patch it up better once we get back. After that it should be fine because it's Rin."

Both of them had entered what Satan had dubbed "battle mode" effortlessly, all of their humor and carelessness draining away just because he got a little hurt. It would have been touching if Satan actually needed the care. Instead, it made him feel out of place, "You two can get pretty serious when you need to…"

And then, as one, the two said in perfect unison:

"Someone has to keep an eye on you."

"Gah, never do that again, it's creepy!"

Yukio unwrapped the bandages around Rin's arm and saw the wound- now several days old in appearance. Only a few hours had passed, and yet the bites had crusted over and the skin around it was cool and pale instead of red and irritated. By morning it would look over a week old and by this time tomorrow, the scab would probably start to peel away. The scar might remain for a week, but even that would fade within days instead of years. It might even be a bit faster since Rin healed small cuts completely in less than eight hours, and that was all the recent information Yukio had to go off of. It was hard to estimate as Rin continued to change.

"What, are you bothered by how I heal, Yukio?" Satan asked, poking the scab and wincing at how strongly humans felt pain. The healing was still horrendously slow compared to what he was used to, but surely this body was being forced to adapt to him and grow stronger.

A hand smacked his own away, "Stop that. And I'm only bothered because I know this will encourage you to be more and more reckless."

"Better me than you."

Yukio winced at the flippant way Rin dismissed such a horrific wound. If this kept up…"Don't say that, Rin! Just because you can heal fast doesn't mean that you should put yourself in harm's way! What if you lost that arm? Or what if it had ripped open your throat or crushed your skull or pierced your heart? What would you do then?"

Satan would heal, that's what would happen. And if he couldn't heal, then he would just pump more and more demonic power into his body until it either healed or the seals broke. It would be an anticlimactic way to reveal his secret, but if that's what it took to stay by Yukio and protect him, then he would do it instantly.

Of course he couldn't say any of that, so instead, "That's what I have you for, to patch me back up!"

"Rin, I'm not a miracle worker!"

"Not yet, you aren't. But you're amazing and I'm sure you would figure something out. 'I believe in you!' is the sort of thing I would say if I wasn't already sure you knew that damn well."

Yukio flushed and looked away from his brother's unnaturally blue eyes. He was too honest and blunt, "Rin…"

"It's fine. I decided I'll protect you a long time ago, whether you want me to or not. So, I'll be a human shield for you no matter what, so you might as well shut up and accept it."

"You're impossible."

"I'm stubborn. It's how I get the things I want."

"One day you're going to get in over your head."

He was "in over his head" the moment he was tricked by a certain woman and hadn't even attempted to surface ever since. Instead, he kept letting himself sink, even swimming deeper himself sometimes, and he hadn't regretted a second of it. Oh, he might regret some of the outcomes, but never once had he even attempted to pull himself free from the tangle he had made for himself. He enjoyed his little paradise that was built on lies and destined to fall to pieces too much to leave before he was hurt.

"As long as I'm by your side, I don't care." Satan repeated and saw Yukio frown but shrugged it off. "No matter what, we'll be together forever and ever! I promise, no, I swear it! Now, it's your turn, Yukio." Swear and promise until the greedy demon was sated for another day.

Yukio just sighed, "What are you, five? I'm not going to say something so ridiculous to someone who's probably going to get killed before they're twenty."

"But Yukio, I love you!" It was amazing how easy the words he had never had the courage to tell Yuri came now. But he knew that he had to express himself before it became too late. Yukio had to know, had to be sure in his very soul so that, maybe, when that cursed day came, he wouldn't hate him too much.

"Yes, yes, I know that. You say it so much sometimes I think you need to tone it down a little or people will get weird ideas." Yukio dismissed and walked away to put up the first aid kit, never really knowing his 'brother's' feelings, but that was fine. It was fine, because if Yukio could understand what Satan felt, then he would have had to suffer far too much, lost too much. Only when something was ripped away could you know just how important it was, but that was much to cruel for his precious child.

Yukio reappeared in the doorway, arms filled with books, "If you want to express how much you care for me without knocking someone's teeth in, how about you work on your studies a bit more?"

"Never mind, I hate you."

Somewhere, far away, a single vial of blood was presented to a certain scientist. It was something that had been long sought after every since a certain rumor had been confirmed by one of their newest agents. It had taken months to carefully acquire without raising the suspicion of the Demon King that had taken to watching the town, but it was sure to be worth it.

It was only a few ounces of red, but with it, history crumbled.

Time to see how many people read the manga.

Also yes, this is the last chapter before they get to True Cross. It was originally going to be two different ones, but both were too short so I combined the ideas. It isn't the smoothest chapter, but honestly want to get to the good stuff. AKA executing the canon plot out back and dumping the body in the ocean.

Disclaimer: It will take several chapters for said execution to happen, but it will happen. Also, expect longer chapter for the most part from now on.